amartya sen

Open letter to Amartya Sen from his batchmate

This was sent by IndiaFacts reader Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, a batchmate of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. 

The Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen can hardly keep quiet. He suffers from verbal diarrhea. He has, therefore, started treading on political issues. Having a noble prize on a totally unrelated domain does not entitle him to pontificate on each and every issue. Unfortunately he is blissfully ignorant of the depth of his ignorance. He had made his pro-congress inclinations quite clear. Was he or is he hoping to get some charming post? He has, as it is, shown his ineptitude in the matter of setting up a new Nalanda University, with some lady professor from Delhi having been selected to be the Vice-Chancellor having no earthly reason to be brought into the picture. To cap it all, Dr. Sen is also believed to be a beneficiary of grants from the Ford Foundation, whose bonafide stands exposed.

This is a brief note from a batch-mate from the same alma mater from where Amartya Sen graduated.

Amartya Sen has made a comment on TV which has also been reported in the newspapers that minorities will not be safe if Narendra Modi becomes the prime minister. First, it is factually incorrect. During the last twelve years, there has been no communal riot in Gujarat while there have been many in other Congress-ruled States. Amartya Sen is pontificating way over the top perhaps only because he has got a Nobel Prize. I think he is being hypocritical with some ulterior motive . Many other friends in Calcutta also corroborated it. Today one of our Presidency College’s ex-student, who is past 90 years of age, remarked that Amartya Sen is angling for a high post in India.

Consider in this context that recently, India’s well-known film scriptwriter Salim Khan (actor Salman  Khan’s father) has said to a senior journalist in an interview: “Does anyone remember who the chief minister of Maharashtra was during the Mumbai riots which were no less deadly than the Gujarat riots of 2002?

Does anyone recall the name of the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh during the Malliana and Meerut riots or that of the Bihar CM when the Bhagalpur or Jamshedpur riots under Congress regimes took place?

Do we hear names of earlier chief ministers of Gujarat under whose charge, hundreds of riots took place in post-Independence India?

Does anyone remember who was in-charge of Delhi’s security when the 1984 massacre of Sikhs took place in the capital of India?

And so it’s curious how only Narendra Modi has been singled out as the Devil Incarnate as if he personally carried out all the killings during the riots of 2002?”

There’s not a single speck of doubt about what Salim Khan has said. Here is how the narrative around Narendra Modi has been woven in the last decade.

When one says Gujarat’s agriculture growth is 10-11% since whole last decade
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says he made the Asia’s biggest solar plant,
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says Gujarat is the only state in the whole of India to provide 24*7 and 365 days electricity to almost all of its 18,000 villages,
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says – World Bank’s statement of 2011 said, Gujarat roads are equivalent to international standards,
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says Gujarat is the first State in country to have high speed wireless Broadband service in its all 18,000 villages
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says Forbes Magazine rated Ahmedabad as the fastest growing city in India and 3rd in the world,
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says Gujarat Tourism is growing faster than ever before,
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says according to central govt’s Labour Bureau’s report, Gujarat has the lowest unemployment rate in country,
The other says 2002 Riots!

When Narendra Modi is being chosen as the best current Indian leader in almost all surveys and polls again and again
The other says 2002 Riots!

When one says 2003-2013 are the only 10 straight years in Gujarat’s history which are totally riot-free,
The other STILL says 2002 Riots!

So we can remind them about the riots which occurred under Congress and Communist Party regimes:

1964 Rourkela………………….……..2,000……………..…….DEAD……………….……..CONGRESS RULE.
 
 1967 Ranchi…………………………….200……………..……….DEAD…………….………..CONGRESS RULE.
 
 1969 Ahmedabad…………………….512…………………..….DEAD………………….…..CONGRESS RULE.
 
 1970 Bhiwandi………………….……..80………………..………DEAD……………..……….CONGRESS RULE.
 
 1979 Jamshedpur………………..……125………………………DEAD………………..…….CPIM RULE (COMMUNIST PARTY)

 1980 Moradabad………………………2,000……………….…..DEAD………………………CONGRESS RULE.

 1983 Nellie Assam……………………..5,000……………………DEAD……………………..CONGRESS RULE.
 
 1984 anti-Sikh Delhi…………………..2,733…………………….DEAD……………………..CONGRESS RULE
 
 1984 Bhiwandi………………….……….146……………..……….DEAD…………….………..CONGRESS RULE
 
 1985 Gujarat…………………..………….300…………..…………DEAD…………..………….CONGRESS RULE
 
 1986 Ahmedabad………………………..59………………..……..DEAD………………………CONGRESS RULE
 
 1987 Meerut……………………………….81……………………….DEAD………….………….CONGRESS RULE
 
 1989 Bhagalpur……………………………1,070………….………..DEAD……………………..CONGRESS RULE
 
 1990 Hyderabad…………………………..300 PLUS………………DEAD….………………….CONGRESS RULE
 
 1992 Mumbai………………………………900 TO 2000………….DEAD…………………….CONGRESS RULE
 
 1992 Aligarh…………………..…………….176………..…………….DEAD……….……………CONGRESS RULE
 
 1992 Surat…………………….……………..175……….……………..DEAD…………………….CONGRESS RULE

These figures are publicly available for verification.

Amartya Sen has long lost his credibility, and his mask as an objective and honest intellectual-academic is finally off.